Connected
by Satsukimochi
Summary: The Heat Haze was defeated, with the reward of bringing their loved ones back to them- however, in return they forgot everything. After 8 years, these children are still connected to one another, in meeting in some ways that is considered to be fated. (AU! After Heat Haze and I guess an AU of Summertime Record into the future!)
1. Ever changing scenery

Eyyyy! I'm going to start another mini AU series ww I'm actually going to probably upload this really fast, just to finish it as quickly as I can.

Based on my headcanons for this certain AU

Basically its about the Kagepro kids after they "defeat" the Heat haze- except!?

* * *

_"W-We did it..." Shintarou said wearily, slumping to his knees on the grassy plain. Everyone, who was pulled into the haze, was pulled out too. A happy ending, or so Shintarou thought. _

_"Who are you?" Kido asked, out of nowhere, staring in disbelief and Kano whose arm was wrapped around her. "W-" She hastily pushed Kano away from her, blushing heavily, and quickly took her older sister by the arm, pulling her off with her to the city. _

_Soon, it wasn't only Kido who began questioning. Everyone, slowly, began to ask the same thing, walking off when they couldn't get an answer. _

_And soon, Shintarou himself forgot._

* * *

-8 years after the heat haze-

"Nii-san! Wake up!"

Shintarou had immediately woken up at that point, his hair messy and his clothes disarranged on his body. Over the years, he had grown to be a light sleeper, and could be easily woken up by Momo's yells. This, painfully, helped him a lot during working days.

The bright, morning sunlight shone through the large glass panes of his bedroom, making him wince slightly at the pain that was inflicted on his eyes due to the bright light. He sluggishly dragged himself out of the bed, and he shuddered, at the feeling of his bare feet touching the cold wooden floor.

This new room, part of a giant 2-bedroom, one kitchen and living room apartment that he had acquired recently with Momo (for an abnormally good deal)- was spacious. It was, at first, a bit too spacious for his liking, but it was good for his job- which involved an abnormal amount of organization and reference books on body parts and diseases. So in the end, he grew to like it.

"Nii-san, are you awake already?" Momo called from behind the rosewood door.

Shintarou stopped abruptly in his path towards the bathroom, and poked his head out of the bathroom door, and managed a weary, "Yeah..." hoping that his sister heard that.

* * *

"You're late!" Momo pouted, stuffing a piece of buttered toast into her brother's mouth as he stepped out of his bedroom. Over the past 8 years, she had still kept her hair short, but now, it had been dyed to a golden honey brown, and permed wavy- and her signature side ponytail still remained.

_Her fashion sense is getting better though, _Shintarou noted whilst muttering unintelligible words behind the toast, hastily shrugging on his jacket before pulling the bread out of his mouth. "Well? How's my hair?"

"She'll like it. You'll look like you fit your job instead of looking like a 26-year old hikkiNEET," Momo snickered, taking out a pair of glasses from her pocket, and placing it on Shintarou's face. "Don't make her wait long for you. But you don't have to wait for me, there's apparently a car coming to pick me up in 10 minutes."

"A new television program they want you on?"

"Yeah. It's about going around the popular stores in the city, and interviewing the managers or something about it."

"Sounds interesting," Shintarou said with a smile from the doorway, closing the door slowly as he saw his sister smile back at him.

* * *

"I'm sorry, I'm late, Ayano!" Shintarou yelled, as he approached a young lady, with shoulder length dark brown hair, with a smile that made his heart skip a beat, and feel warm and fuzzy. However, he could still feel bits of undigested bread bouncing around in his stomach, making him feel slightly sick. _I guess this is how an indigestion feels like, _Shintarou thought dryly, remembering how he had ran all the way to the train station whilst eating his breakfast in order not to be late.

"You're not late, the train hasn't even arrived yet," Ayano laughed, smiling widely. "Anyways, good morning, Shintarou!" and by the moment Ayano had greeted him, the train arrived, on the dot, sending everyone blowing along with the strong wind. As the train came to the halt, opening its doors like a giant mouth inviting everyone in, Shintarou and Ayano began to burst into laughter.

They both continued laughing as they got on to the train, finding their places conveniently near the entrance, overlooking the scenery passing by outside the window. "Your timing is, as always, impeccable." Shintarou grinned.

"And that's why you love me," Ayano joked, reaching slightly for Shintarou's hand. It was soft, warm and petite compared to his larger and rougher hand. He squeezed her hand back tightly. "So, how's work? I heard you've been promoted from pediatrician to surgeon- which sounds like quite a stretch,"

"Good, I guess. Nice co-workers and stuff- performed my first surgery on someone about a week ago. It was vexing." Shintarou commented simply, shuddering at the memory of staring into someone's insides. "How about you with the whole kindergarten work?"

"Ah, the children are really adorable! They always make me do this hero act thing which is really fun," Ayano laughed, before going back to stare out into the moving scenery. Her head tilted slightly so that she'd just lean slightly onto Shintarou's shoulder. Shintarou couldn't help but think about how cute she was, and also couldn't believe that he'd actually managed to get into a relationship with his long time crush. It'd been a good life, he thought happily.

The train came to a sudden bumpy stop, causing everyone on board to stumble a bit to the right. Shintarou felt someone knocking hard against him, her pale hands awkwardly grabbing onto his arm for stability. "A-Ah, sorry," She said, in a rather low voice.

Shintarou's heart pounded, abnormally, when he managed to get a good look of that person. A tall young lady (_younger than me, perhaps,_ Shintarou thought) with long, flowing dark green hair, her ears constantly blasted with music through her earphones. A pretty face, but somehow she could be easily mistaken for a teenage guy. Hands jammed deep in her jean pockets, and a dark purple jacket that was a strange mix of a hoodie and sweater, sleeves rolled up to the elbows. _Where had I seen her before? _He asked himself.

"Ah, we already arrived," Ayano said, pulling Shintarou back to reality, who realized that the mysterious green haired lady was gone. "Is something wrong? It look's like you've seen a ghost."_  
_

"Oh... uh, no. Let's go, I'll walk you to your workplace then, since its on the way to the hospital." Shintarou said quickly, following the crowd out of the train, with Ayano walking alongside him.

"Are you really okay?" Ayano asked again, her voice full of concern.

"No... It's nothing, honestly." But Shintarou could only look away, with his mind somewhere else in the world._  
_

* * *

First chapter done!

This is probably going to be 3 chapters, at least. I think. Probably won't even go over 5. Ah, also because of the nature of this AU, some pairings aren't necessarily going to stay "the same" (the same can be however you interpret it to be ww)

Maybe someone has done this before www

Anyways, thank you for reading up to this point! wwwwww


	2. Familiar Faces

Second chapterrrr this is mainly Momo and Ayano's P.O.V with a bit of Shintarou at the end ww

"Different", or so to speak, pairings are introduced here?

Um yeah, I hope you enjoy! u v u

* * *

"I'll see you soon," Shintarou smiled at Ayano, before leaving her at her workplace. Ayano watched Shintarou walk off into the distance, where the hospital awaited him. _I wonder how it's like working over there... _Ayano thought, walking through the gates, and into the building- which was an elementary school and a kindergarten. When she had first came, she had immediately signed up for the kindergarten sector, feeling that much younger children were her comfort zone.

She really loved this job, of being a kindergarten teacher. She loved children, and she loved seeing the smiles on their faces, and hearing their childish laughter ring through the classrooms and the field. "Good morning everyone!" Ayano exclaimed, bowing down immediately as she stood in between the doorway of the staff room.

"Good morning Tateyama-san!" "Good morning Ayano-chan!" several of the other teachers and caretakers greeted back.

"Looking excited and happy as ever, Ayano-chan," one of the older teachers said with a smile, patting Ayano on the shoulder. "You always bring joy to this place,"

"No way, I think everyone brings joy in their own way," Ayano replied sheepishly, blushing slightly at the compliment. She began to head over to her desk, shrugging off her jacket, and hanging her bag on the chair. She eyed the red muffler folded up in her bag, and took it out, wrapping it around her neck, making warm and snug.

One of Ayano's friends and co-worker, Erika, walked up to Ayano's desk, smiling widely. Her flamboyant and multicolored nails tapped against the hard desk surface, alerting Ayano of her presence. "Ayano-chan, you know, we're going to have a new teacher here! Or more like, that teacher is already here, speaking with the principle in the office, over there," Erika whispered, pointing towards the center of the staff room, where Ayano could vaguely make out the principle talking to someone, a guy, with somewhat short black hair inside the office.

"Did you see him? Like his face?"

"Yep," Erika grinned. "He's pretty young, perhaps 24 years old or something, like the age of Kisaragi Momo. Pretty good looking too- reminds me of one of my favorite actors. Nice, young, fresh face." Erika closed her eyes dreamily, making Ayano laugh. "Speaking of which Ayano-chan, you never really got a co-tutor right?"

"True," Ayano said, resting her cheek on her hand.

"What if the newbie's going to be your co-tutor?"

Ayano opened her mouth to reply back, but was cut off by the principle's somewhat loud yell, "Tateyama-san! Please come here!" and without a protest, Ayano quietly walked over to the office, and closed the door slowly behind her. She looked up to see the principle's smiling face, staring at the guy in front of Ayano, then back at Ayano. "Tateyama-san, this lad here is going to be your new co-tutor," _I swear, Erika and predicting skills.__  
_

The guy in front of her turned around, revealing a bright smiling face, his brown eyes sparkling with excitement. "Nice to meet you, I'm Seto Kousuke! I hope we can get along well," he said happily, bowing down.

Ayano went silent for a while, staring wide eyed at her new co-worker, before quickly bowing down, "I-I'm Tateyama Ayano, nice to meet you too! I wish for the same as well," and she saw Seto stiffen in front of her. When they had both, in sync, looked back up at each other, a wave of recognition went through Ayano. "Well, um, I guess... I should show him around before the kids come, right?" The principle nodded, and gestured at Ayano to open the door.

_Have I seen him somewhere? _Ayano thought to herself. "W-Well, um, I guess we'll start going around the building now!" and Seto nodded at her exclamation, following her out of the staff room, and into the silent corridors, with colorful decorations stuck up on the classroom windows, and a hiragana chart pasted here and there on the walls. "So this is the main corridor, for the younger kids, the section we'll be mainly working at,"

Seto glanced around with smile, tilting his head slightly as if to ask Ayano to go on. And so for the next 10 minutes, they wandered around several classrooms, visited the cafeteria, the playground, and then to the classroom they would be at. Ayano decided that they'd best stay here, so when the kids came, they wouldn't have to walk from the staff room back there. "So... Seto-kun- wait, is it okay if I call you that?"

"Sure! It's fine by me- can I call you Ayano-san then?"

"Yep," Ayano said, noting that Seto tended to talk with a slur. "Did you work anywhere else before here?"

"Yeah, I worked as a florist, took a part-time job in a bookstore- hmm... I also worked at a pet shop! But I think there was more, I am pretty sure I worked as a shopkeeper in a few shops too," Seto said, counting the number of jobs he had with his fingers. Ayano's eyes widened at the amount of jobs he had listed. "I took most of them when I had moved out from my foster family,"

"Foster family?"

"I'm... um, adopted."

"I-I'm sorry to..." Ayano trailed off from her sentence, unsure whether it'd be right to say that under these circumstances. "So right now, you're living alone?"

"Nope," Seto said, before turning red, partially covering his face in shyness. His eyes flickered from Ayano to outside the windows. "I-I moved in with my girlfriend," Ayano's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates, and a smile immediately began to creep on to her face. She let out a little giggle, causing Seto to look away even more, and turn redder. "She runs a cafe with her older sister or something- I think it's pretty popular..."

"Really~" _well it's no doubt that someone this friendly and good looking would get a girlfriend! _Ayano grinned. _I wonder how his girlfriend looks like- no doubt she'd be as lovely as him._

"Maybe if you'd like, we could go there after this place?" Seto offered with a wide smile, though his cheeks remained a bright shade of pink. "You seem very interested and curious as to who I'm going out with, even though we've just met,"

_Did he know what I was thinking about?_ "You took the words right out of my head," Ayano laughed, and at the back of her head, she saw a young boy wearing a white hoodie, with black hair like Seto, and on the boy's blurred face, Ayano could vaguely see a pair of eyes that constantly flickered from brown to red. She could hear someone call to her "_Ayano onee-chan!_" at the back of her head. For some reason, that image made her heart ache, and made her want to smile warmly and hug the boy in the image."It's weird for me to say this, but even though we've just met, I have a feeling we're going to be close friends. And that I'm pretty sure I can trust you, no matter what."

Seto grinned, "Funnily enough, same here. Ayano-san."

* * *

"Aahhhhh he wrote another article here! And he even got an interview! Why didn't I know!?" Momo shrieked, holding up an open magazine to her face, staring straight at a photo of a blonde guy with cat-like eyes. It was a photo of one of her favorite journalists- though he mainly wrote for magazines, and had provided them hilarious, intriguing interviews of actors, actresses, composers, models and many more. He had become popular ever since his debut as a journalist, Momo recalled. "I-I really want to buy this..." she whimpered.

Momo was mainly in the bookstore as part of her work, which was to explore popular hangouts in the city (but oddly enough, when the car dropped her here, her crew wasn't here as she had expected). The bookstore was gigantic, and seemed to have almost every book in the country, every magazine, a large section dedicated to DVDs, and even had a handful of international books as well. _Nii-san would like a place like this, I wonder if he had discovered this bookstore yet? _

"Hey, hey, isn't that Kisaragi Momo?" someone whispered- or at least attempted to, as Momo had clearly heard it. Soon, more of the same questions began to arise, and squeals began to add up to the noise being created in the bookstore. _Ah, what did I do!? _Momo screamed mentally, quickly taking the magazine with her, as she went to explore another section of the giant bookstore that would hopefully be quieter.

_Keep my head down, don't attract attention...! _And Momo began to pick up her walking pace, but then immediately came to a halt when she had managed to bump into someone, and knock over all the books that they were carrying. "I'm really, really sorry! Let me help you!" Momo exclaimed whilst quickly tucking the magazine under her arm, hastily picking up all the books that were dropped. She saw some familiar titles, like "_Confessions_", and "_Koizora_", some interesting titles like "_The Story of the Macaron Loving Girl Who Lived a Thousand Years Somehow" _and _"The Missing Children_". Other than some novels, there were also a bunch of reference books, for Art and Design, Economics, and Medicine. Some manga, and interestingly enough, one or two international books.

"Thank you for helping me," a low, boyish voice said to her.

Momo smiled, though she wasn't sure that the guy in front of her could see it, as her head was still kept down. "No it's nothing... I mean I should help you, since..." Momo trailed mid way sentence, as she moved to reach for the last book on the floor. Instinctively, the guy had also moved to grab it, and their hands had briefly brushed against each other. "O-Oh, sorry, um," She turned to finally look up at her victim of her antics, and found herself staring widely for a while.

The youth in front of her was quite handsome, with messy, chocolate brown hair, and eyes that were also staring widely at her. He looked around 4, 5 or 6 years younger than her, probably in his first year of university. Momo's heart pounded unusually- was this because she found him good looking or was it because she had actually seen him somewhere before?

A faded image of a younger boy with a blurred face, dark brown hair, and a cheeky smile appeared in Momo's mind. _Who was that? _"Here, um, the books that you dropped," she said, her hands outstretched to him with a large amount of books.

The guy continued to stare at her, then suddenly broke away when he gazed down at her hands. "Oh, thanks." And as soon as Momo had returned the books, she immediately got up, bowed down, and ran off to the cashier.

"Hibiya, what's taking you so long?" A long, black haired girl appeared from behind a bookshelf, staring impatiently at Hibiya, who still remained on his knees on the floor, holding the books that a lady had helped him pick up. "Hibiya?"

"Oh, uh, I dropped some books and... uh, a lady helped me," Hibiya finally said, looking at the cashier, watching the mysterious pretty lady fumble around for her wallet at the cashier. He stifled a laugh before getting up. _That lady is kind of amusing. _"Did you find any more books, Hiyori?"

But Hiyori had ignored his question, and had immediately grabbed Hibiya's hands, making him drop all the books much to his dismay. Once upon a time, a younger Hibiya would have probably been over the moon with joy with the fact that his childhood crush grabbed both of his hands and held it tightly- but that kind of love had died down throughout the years. Strangely enough, when Hibiya was sure that he didn't exactly like Hiyori in that way anymore in their 2nd year of high school, Hiyori had been sticking somewhat 'closer' to him. "That's Kisaragi Momo! Over there!"

"Who now?" Hibiya looked at the direction Hiyori was looking at, and frowned slightly. "Do you mean the lady at the cashier? She's the one who helped me just now."

Hiyori let out a shriek, "Well the lady who helped you is that famous TV personality Kisaragi Momo! Why didn't you get me an autograph of her or something?!"

"How the hell am I supposed to know that was her?! I didn't even know that you liked her!" Hibiya yelled, squatting back down to pick up the books again. _Even if she's that famous, I don't even know her in the first place, _Hibiya thought idly, and turned back to see whether he could still her there. _  
_

But she had already left.

* * *

I wonder who Seto's girlfriend is

/laughs into the distance

Probably the next chapter will actually be the last chapter, and then I'll probably post another mini chapter on a certain someone's P.O.V about his heartbroken love life

Thank you for reading up to this point! wwwwwwwwwww


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